Simple Path to Wealth
JL Collins
Summary
Great book on how to create wealth simply for decades. Well written and JL Collins does a good job explaining in simple terms how to invest in your future and manage your personal finances
Rating: 4/5
Notes
Spend less than you earn, invest the surplus and avoid debt
Never marry or give a fiscally irresponsible person access to your money
The greater percentage of income you save and invest, the sooner you’ll have fuck you money
Try saving and investing 50% of your income
If you can live on 4% of your investments per year, you are financially independent
Stock picking is a sucker’s game
If it sounds too good to be true, it is
If your interest rate on debt is less than 3%, put money into investments. If it’s more than 5%, pay it off ASAP
Paying off your debt should be your first priority
Invest, re-invest what it earns and re-invest what that earns
Vanguard’s total stock market index fund VTSAX
The most useful and powerful tool to navigate the world is money
There is no way to time the market!
Just put your money away and let it ride, as soon as the market crashes, put in more
Stay the course with a side-dish of panic
1% of active traders outperform the market the more frequently you trade, the worse you’ll do
Stocks: VTSAX (vanguard stocks)
Bonds: VBTLX (vanguard bonds)
No one will ever beat the market so never think fund managers will do it
Bonds = bad during inflating times and good during deflating times
Put all your eggs in the investing basket and forget about it
Put 100% of your assets into stocks when trying to build wealth
VFWAX - FTSE all-world ex-US index fund
VTIAX - total international stock fund
Look at TRFs (target retirement funds) that are around the age you’ll retire
Need a min 10k for vanguard VTSAX so invest in total vanguard stock market index portfolio (VT vanguard total stocks ETF)
The difference between 1% and 2% in fees over your lifetime is hundreds of thousands of dollars. Don’t invest with an investment advisor
10% in bonds and 90% in low cost index funds
Everybody can be conned
Withdrawing 3% or less annually is a sure bet to still growing
Everything you want is on the other side of fear - Jack Cantfield
If you’re financially independent, invest 100% of your earnings to grow your nest egg
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Free E-book download here
Make Something Wonderful
Steve Jobs
Summary
The life of Steve Jobs in his own words
Rating: 5/5
Notes
Make something wonderful and put it out there
‘You appear, have a chance to blaze in the sky, then you disappear’
When you’re a stranger in a place, you notice thing you don’t otherwise (Jobs after India trip)
Whenever you start with nothing, always shoot for the moon. You have nothing to lose.
You never achieve what you want without falling on your face a few times
Never be afraid to fail. You never achieve what you want without falling flat on your face a few times
We are never taught to listen to our intuitions, to develop and nurture them. But if you do pay attention to these subtle insights, you can make them come true
Creativity equals connecting previously unrelated experiences and insights others don’t see
Believe that some of what you follow with your heart will come back and make your life richer. And it will. And you will gain even firmer trust on your instincts and intuitions
Make your avocation your vocation. Make what you love your work.
The journey is the reward. The reward isn’t in the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it’s in crossing the rainbow
To find A+ talent, if experienced, look at their track record and results
The world we know is a human creation and we can push it forward
The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do (read whole ad ‘here’s to the crazy ones)
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit - Aristotle
Hire people better than you are
You can’t plan to meet the people who will change your life
It’s impossible to connect the dots looking forward, but they make sense looking backwards so you have to trust the dots will somehow connect in your future
Everything around you that you call life was made up by people no smarter than you
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Buy the book here
Free E-book download here